The fine weather has been playing havoc with my stats updating but hurlingstats.com is finally back up to date. And there’s been plenty of fine hurling in the mean time.
The pattern of Kilkenny’s last two games has seen their opponents come all guns a-blazing and established a decent lead over the champions. The Cats however have shown an ability to absorb the early blows, reel in their opponents and win the match. Against Galway, 2 early second half goals left them 5 points down - but 10 points without reply gave the Cats a winning lead. The 2008 hurler of the year Eoin Larkin has picked up where he left off last year with 5 points from play. Joe Canning only got one score from play (a superb early goal) but hit another 1-09 from placed balls.
In the other Leinster semi-final Dublin finally overcame Wexford to reach their first Leinster final since 1991. Alan McCrabbe scored 10 points (9 from frees) for Dublin.
In Munster, Waterford had an eight point win over Limerick in the replayed semi-final. John Mullane has started the championship in excellent form and contributed 6 points from play to add to the 4 he got in the drawn match. Tipperary beat Clare in the other semi after surviving a second half revival by the Banner. Top scorer for Tipp was young Noel McGrath with 7 points (5 from play, 1 free, 1 sideline cut). For Clare Colin Ryan was very impressive (12 points - 3 from play, 6 frees, 2 65s, 1 sideline cut).
The draw for Phase 1 and 2 of the qualifiers has been made.
Phase 1
- Offaly v Cork
- Laois v Antrim
Phase 2
- Clare v Galway
- Wexford v Limerick
The winners of Phase 1 will be drawn against the winners of Phase 2. Repeat pairings are not allowed meaning that the following fixtures cannot happen: Galway v Laois and Offaly v Wexford.
The final pairings for the Christy Ring Cup, Nicky Rackard Cup and Lory Meagher Cup are now known:
- Christy Ring Down v Carlow
- Nicky Rackard London v Meath
- Lory Meagher Tyrone v Donegal
These matches will be played in Croke Park on Saturday on Saturday, 11 July. An added incentive for the winners is that they will be automatically promoted to the next tier. In previous years there was a relegation/promotion playoff between the winners of the lower tier and the bottom placed team in the higher tier. For example last year Laois beat Carlow to maintain their status as a top tier hurling county. This year however, either Down or Carlow will be promoted to compete for the Liam McCarthy cup in 2010. Does this mean that if Down go up and Laois go down, then both Antrim and Down will compete in Leinster next year? I don’t know!
Speaking of Antrim, they won the first silverware of the summer when they defeated Down in the Ulster Final.
I watched the Limerick v Waterford replay live using RTE.ie’s GAA media player and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. My broadband connection is 2MB by the way.
Seven players got their first taste of championship hurling since my last update:
Wexford (3)
Kilkenny (1)
Limerick (2)
Clare (1)
That brings to 39 the number of hurlers who have made their championships debuts so far this year. By the way, I define a debut as the first time a player plays for his county in championship hurling. For example Colin Ryan made his debut for Clare v Cork in 2007 when he came on as a sub. His first starting appearance for Clare was against Tipp on June 21.